[lucci]

Hi All,

I have recently upgraded my Vista 64-bit Media Center to Windows 7 Media Center, also 64-bit. Ever since I changed the OS, my Hauppauge ATSC tuners would at times inexplicably shut off. Generally, I have my Digital Signal Strength Indicators (wintv_sigmon.exe) turned on for both tuners to monitor their signal strengths. At most times, both indicator are green, indicating strong signals. Sometimes, having left the computer running for a while, without having Media Center turned on, one or both signal would die completely, with one or both indicators becoming black. When this happens, scheduled recordings are obviously skipped, unless one tuner is left on. Sometimes, this behaviour occurs while Media Center is on and in the middle of a recording. The tuner recording a program would die all of a sudden, and Media Center would continue recording a blank signal.

Some observations to note:

• Signal Strength indicators turning black is not due to a weak OTA signal, because the tuners are tuned to the most reliable channels available.
• I can make the ASTC tuners turn back on if I first change to an analog channel then switch back to a digial channel. Indicator would then switch from black to green.
• This behaviour did not occur with Vista Media Center
• Standby and Hibernate are disabled.
• Lastest Hauppauge drivers are used: 22xxdrv_27223.zip
• Used Peter Near's instructions to enable ASTC here in Toronto: http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/pne...atsc-amp-qam-in-canada-for-windows-7-rtm.aspx

One thing I haven't tried is to roll back to older Hauppauge drivers. Do you think that would help? Any suggestions as to how I may solve this problem are greatly appreciated!

 

[jeneral]

Sounds like you're having an overheating issue. I had a similar problem with one of my tuners. The tuner in question was a combo tuner and in my case, the analog would overheat and 7MC couldn't tune any channels. Luckily, the tuner still works. I just mounted 2 additional fans in my case, a 60mm above the 3 tuners and an 80 MM at the end to pull the hot air out. Since making those changes, I haven't had any issues.

Once question, why use a 64-bit OS for a Media Center? Although I use Windows 7 64-bit in my main PC, I still prefer to use 32-bit in my HTPC. Too many devices lack proper drivers and since I'll probably never exceed 4GB of RAM, the incompatibility issues aren't worth it.

 

[lucci]

Thank you for your reply, jeneral.

What an interesting solution. That was something that never really came across my mind at all, but it does make sense. The only thing that doesn't jive is the fact that by turning on the NTSC tuner then switch back to ASTC, the digital channels come right back on.

So far, I have tried using an older version of the Hauppauge drivers, and it seems to have solved the problem. But I can't say for certain until I monitor the tuners for a few more days. And if that fails, I'll definitely try adding an additional fan over the mobo, as my case will allow.

As for the 64 bit OS, so far I haven't come across any driver issue. Most of the hardware are pretty well supported these days, I suppose. The reason why I use a 64-bit OS is for the additional RAM. I use video capture software that stores images directly onto RAM before being transferred to the hard drive. The additional memory really helps in that sense. If my pc was only an HTPC, I probably would have just stayed with 32-bit.

 

[tczernec]

Using a 32-bit Windows 7 w/ Hauppage 2250 and having no problems here; the stability of 7MC is so much better than VMC. Stayed away from 64-bit due to the aforementioned driver issues - I think LMRemoteKeyMap has some issues with 64-bit installs and I want nothing more than to keep my entire setup (audio, tv, HTPC) on the same remote, so I stayed with 32-bit..